Whippersnapper: The formation of Clinton Township as seen by Odell

Friday

Mar 16, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By PAUL LOCHER

Staff Writer

CLINTON TWP. -- Much of what is known of the earliest years of settlement in Clinton Township comes from the reminiscences written by Lorenzo Odell, whose father, Nathan Odell, was among the first settlers there.

Nathan Odell was born in Queen Anne County, Md., on Nov. 4, 1772. He was a farmer and a miller, and he had nine children. His ancestors were Irish, but he had moved to England, from which he had immigrated to America. He lived in Virginia for a number of years and was married there in Berkeley County.

In 1800 Odell moved to the Ohio Country, initially settling in what is today Adams County, then moving to Wayne County on April 16, 1811, where he remained until the fall of 1830.

Lorenzo Odell wrote of his father, "When he arrived, there was not a white inhabitant living in what is now Clinton Township, his nearest neighbor living on the Perrysville Road. He first entered the south half of section 19 (today Big Prairie) and afterwards half of section 29 (now in Holmes County), and his land was the first entered in the township. His improvements were the first built in the township and they were erected in 1810 by him, the year prior to his removal (settling)."

Lorenzo wrote that his father, who had erected a log cabin, "cut wild hay the year he came, and kept his stock on this dried wild grass. He found what is known as the Big Prairie covered with wild sedge grass, some of which would grow to the height of 10 feet and was most difficult to suppress and conquer. The timber was scarce and chiefly oak and hickory."

He wrote that his father "soon began the construction of a grist mill, which was located about four rods northeast and close to the bridge spanning the stream near the late Isaac Newkirk's barn ... on the road from Big Prairie to Lakeville."

Lorenzo described Nathan's mill as being 25 feet square, two stories tall, and being made of hand-hewn logs with a split wood shingle roof, puncheon floor and powered by a breast wheel.

He said the burrs (grinding wheels) were fashioned from large round (probably granite) stones which he had located in section 18 (the next section north) on the farm of Ira H. Aylsworth.

The hopper for the mill, wrote Lorenzo, "was made of split cherry. There was not a sawed board or a sawed stick of timber in the mill, which was constructed by A. Trux of Richland County."

Next: More early Clinton Township reminiscences

Source: "History of Wayne County, Ohio" by Ben Douglass

Sunday: More memoirs of Lorenzo Odell

Reporter Paul Locher can be reached at 330-682-2055 or plocher@the-daily-record.com.